Bell Unending
by KentouKurige
Summary: One-shot. I don't know if this should be rated higher... it's got death in it. A Companion and her Herald are trapped in a situation that they cannot survive... only one problem. She does. At least for a while. Grief and death.


_Shouri: Don't ask. I am depressed. I wrote this basing the characters on my brother and his puppy. I don't know where it came from. Just so you know, both of them are perfectly fine, never been better. I'm probably more in the dark than you guys are._

"speech"

**:thoughtspeech:**

**Bell Unending**

"Kellith!" Jayse pants, hands tight in the silken mane which lashes his face. The mare beneath him strains and lunges, her sides heaving.

**:Hold on, beloved: **She screams mentally, eyes fogging with fatigue and oxygen deprivation. Fiery blasts scorch her haunches, the very breath of hell hard on her heels. The demon is gaining, with a roar of snarling and smashing trees. A distant mindvoice wails in her head, the other Heralds will not reach them in time to save them… will not even reach the monster in time to stop it from ravaging the town which she and her Chosen had visited on their circuit not two days ago. Will not reach them in time to keep this bane of life from feasting upon the souls of the innocent orphans who had laughed so joyfully around her hocks, and fed her apples… She shudders, feeling Jayse's silent tears as they share her mind.

"Kellith…" He murmurs against her neck.

**:I know beloved. I know…:** She sighs as she enfolds his very soul with her own. The young man, little more than boy really who had just watched his mentor die horribly, seems to turn to steel in determination, his bright soul flaring like silver fire in her mind.

**:Let us begin, Kellithan…: **his voice wavers in her mind, as his hands grip hard into her mane once more. She sends her assent

With a pealing trumpet of defiance, she wheels, flipping over her own haunches as her rear reverses their direction. Her silver hooves chime like the avenging bells of heaven as she charges back the way she had come, her Chosen clinging like a limpet to her bare back as he howls his own rage and defiance, armed only with a belt-knife.

And it is there, waiting. Darkness and flames and writhing limbs like countless snakes lash, trees crumpled in smoking heaps beneath its twisted bulk, smoldering and sending up billows of acidic black smoke. The trees still standing are warping, twisting and blackening with blight from its mere presence, and leaves rain down in showers, fluttering before the horror's eyes. Its eyes… a shocking beautiful blue which seems a mockery as they stare maliciously at the pair's approach, from above the jagged, dripping maw.

"VALDEMAR!" Jayse crows as the gap closes.

There was no crash as they came together, there was no heroic and picturesque battle as the tales so often depict. She had simply launched her entire body at the demon in her path, kicking and biting and lashing when those snakelike limbs had enfolded her and lifted her effortlessly. The whole thing seemed to slow into an eternity. They hadn't expected do the creature any damage… only slow it enough to give the village a chance. But as the monster entangled her legs, stopping her rush, Kellithan feels Jayse fly from her back, momentum carrying him forward, straight into the beasts face.

Then all was pain. Horrible, indescribable pain.

**:Kellith.: **Jayse's voice is weak and laden with disbelief, fear and pain.

**:JAYSE:** Kellithan screams, her legs thrashing as her whole body convulses. Everything goes chaotic. Her chosen is in her mind. Her chosen is sobbing, writhing, wailing… mental fingers grip at her bright soul.

**:Kellith…:** Jayse's mindvoice whimpers weakly, pleadingly.

**:JAYSE! No:** She screams again, louder. One of her legs snaps with the force of her thrashing. Fire floods her, icy fire that rolls over her in waves. Her chosen is in her mind. Her chosen is fading.

**:I love you, Kellith…: **Jayse whispers numbly.

**:JAYSE! DON'T LEAVE ME:** Her wail seems to echo across existence, so loud she is sure every mindspeaker in the world had heard her desperate plea.

Her chosen is in her mind. Her chosen is fading. Her chosen is gone.

Something shatters in her; her spirit, her sanity, her heart; it hardly matters, for it is broken, and all she can feel is her grief and her pain and her rage. A noise hums solemnly in the back of her mind. Silver legs lash and crush, smashing the convulsing limbs of the creature as she virtually drags herself on her belly, one leg twisted grotesquely. Blood, hers and the creature's, streaks her hide. No light appears to glow from within her equine frame.

With a scream that tears her throat, she topples down beside the creatures head. Bright blue eyes stare blankly at her, frozen forever in a wide stare of shock. She does not see it. Her eyes are only for the broken form dangling from between its massive jaws. Her body vibrates with the hum.

His messy blonde hair is matted down with blood, his bluegray eyes wide as they stare unseeing at the sky. One hand lay flung out to the side, palm up. Teeth drive deep into his chest, teeth as long as dirks and twice as sharp. Between the gaps, she can see his other arm pressed deep into the creatures maw, still gripping hard to the knife which had sought out and found the creature's brain. Time ceases to have meaning.

Shudders wrack her body as she lays her head over his arm, pressing her muzzle against what is left of his side. Nothing reaches her pain-filled mind, as she lays there feeling the chill of her soul radiate out through her, echoing in that place where once her Chosen's love blazed. The hum squeals in her thoughts, tolling in time to her choked chant…

**:Jayse… Chosen… Jayse…:** she whispers unceasingly, as the sky darkens, and night falls, and the forest seems to shudder around her with the strength of her grief.

They came at dawn. Shining white, they came, only to halt in shock at the aura of pain which shrouds the very air. 

**_pain-sorrow-anguish-grief-guilt-want-need-horror-pain-cold-broken-pain-need-grief _**

The unending projection of one Companions soul, her voice long ago silenced. Her body still and spirit long flown, now all that remains is the bell that once hummed endlessly throughout her very being to voice her loss.

The death-bell tolls pure grief through that tattered wood.

But she is not there. And somewhere in the Havens, two souls entwine in reunification, joyful and free, where not even the bell can touch them anymore.

_Shouri: There. All done. I think I'm done angsting. I hope. Tankiwa for readin'._


End file.
